THE NEXT TOP BLOCKCHAIN STARTUP

Blockchain is transforming the world. It has revolutionized industries large and small and is redefining the way humans interact and do business. In order for blockchain technology to be adopted by the mainstream, which we are confident that it will be, it requires brilliant, creative and determined individuals creating new use cases and improving already existing products.

The Next Top Blockchain Startup is a global hackathon and startup competition that aims to spotlight the next wave of blockchain entrepreneurs. Prepare for a summer full of educational workshops and Q&A's with leaders in blockchain. Compete to win crypto bounties, token design & mentorship, listing opportunities, entrance into incubators and grant programs, and a virtual pitch day! 

HOW IT WORKS & WHAT TO EXPECT

  • Do it solo or create a team of up to 8 members.
  • Review the prize categories and opt-in to the ones that you want to compete in. If your idea encompasses multiple prize categories, make sure to apply for all of them!
  • Work on building a prototype and/or feasible proof of concept (white paper). See submission requirements for details. 
  • Take part in the developer workshops, start-up seminars, networking & mentorship opportunites. 
  • Submit your idea by August 8th - Winners announced August 20th. 
  • Own your ideas and continue developing them after the hackathon!
  • Select teams are invited to participate in TDeFi's virtual pitch day & win the opportunity to join their accelerator program. More below.

WHO WE ARE LOOKING FOR 

  • Students in computer science, engineering, business or other applicable fields.
  • Developers (prior experience in crypto is not required). 
  • UI/UX and visual designers.
  • Individuals with an interest in blockchain and tokenomics.

TDeFi VIRTUAL PITCH DAY 

After the hackathon, select winning teams that display the best business use cases will get an opportunity to present at the Virtual Pitch Day hosted by TDeFi, a crypto accelerator, and potentially recieve up to $100,000 in grants and entrance into their extensive acceleration program that will assist with: company setup & regulation, token consturction and listing advisory, and mentorship for fundraising. 

Do you have what it takes to come up with the leading blockchain organization of tomorrow?

Requirements

You can build any project that leverages blockchain technology. Eligible submissions must meet/include the following criteria:

  1. A White Paper*, Prototype** and/or Proof-of-Concept*** (e.g., MVPs) + Description. Some prizes require just a white paper, whereas others require protoypes and multiple submissions. See below for the criteria.
  2. A link to a short (max 5 minutes) video introducing the project, it's use case and functionality.
  3. Meet the requirements for each applicable prize category. Head over to the Submission Requirements tab on Devpost to learn more.
  4. Submissions and their content must be in English
  5. Meet the Devpost deadline.

Note: some ideas take longer to build then others. A working prototype and/or Proof-of-Concept is usually preffered, but if you cannot build it by the deadline then we encourage you to still submit the detailed white paper as it will often be considered. Just make sure to blow the judges away! 

*White Paper: An eligible white paper submission must include the following: an introduction, analysis of the market, project description, technical architecture and features, token information (if applicable), business model and user acquisition plan, team information, roadmap and future goals. 

**Prototype + Description: An eligible prototype + description submission must include a link to the projects GitHub/Repository with source code and a link to a live demo. You must also include a description (on Devpost)or a white paper/light paper PDF to introduce the project. If your repository is private, please share the access details with the event organizer.

***POC + Description: An eligible POC + Description must include a link to the MVP and a description (on Devpost) or white paper/light paper PDF to introduce the project. If the MVP is private, please share access with the hackathon's organizer. If the MVP is private, please share access details with the event organizer.

Hackathon Sponsors

Prizes

$140,600 in prizes

Open Innovation Grand Prize - Hosted by BitMart, Future Tech & GDA Ventures (2)

The open innovation category considers any project regardless of scope. Every project is automatically considered.

1st place:
• $15,000 in USDT
• Requirements & Token Advisory meeting with leading technology company Future Tech (valued at $30,000)
• 3 month long incubation program with GDA Ventures,
• Direct listing opportunity, or even Initial Exchange Offering opportunity if deemed appropriate by BitMart.

2nd place:
• $7,500 in USDT,
• Direct listing opportunity, or even Initial Exchange Offering opportunity if deemed appropriate by BitMart.
• Virtual coffee with the CEO of GDA Capital

Build a Polkadot Parachain - Hosted by the Web3 Foundation (3)

The Web3 Foundation is awarding the top 3 teams to build a custom blockchain that could one day become a parachain on Polkadot or Kusama. Utilise Substrate and build your specialised chain from the ground up.

1st Place - Prototype Required
• $5000 USD (cash or stablecoin)
• Expedited pitch session for Substrate Builders Program (if applicable)
• 1x Polkadot engraved Ledger Nano X & Polkadot Swag
• Virtual meeting with Advanced Blockchain AG

2nd Place - Prototype required
• $3000 USD (cash or stablecoin)
• Expedited pitch session for Substrate Builders Program (if applicable)
• 1x Polkadot engraved Ledger Nano X & Polkadot Swag
• Virtual meeting with Advanced Blockchain AG

3rd Place - No prototype required
• $2000 USD (cash or stablecoin)
• 1x Polkadot engraved Ledger Nano X & Polkadot Swag
• Virtual meeting with Advanced Blockchain AG

Building DeFi for the Masses - Hosted by Terra powered by LUNA (2)

Terra will be rewarding the top 2 teams who use the Terra blockchain to create a POC or prototype in the 2 categories of Interoperability & DeFi. Teams will need to create innovative products building on Terra or utilizing Terra-based assets from Mirror, Anchor, or stablecoins like UST in a meaningful way. Winners will receive a cash prize and be accepted into Terraform Capital, where Terra utilizes its extensive resources in networking, investors, PR/comms, and other areas to help projects maximize success.

1st Place:
• $5,000 worth of LUNA
• Acceptance into Terraform Capital
• Preferred application for Terra Ecosystem Grant

2nd Place:
• $5,000 worth of LUNA
• Acceptance into Terraform Capital
• Preferred application for Terra Ecosystem Grant

Climate Neutral NFTs on NEAR - Hosted by NEAR Protocol (4)

Want to create your own NFT Platform where you can mint tons of NFTs, have complex business logic and lots of on-chain metadata, without having to worry about the environment? NEAR Protocol is a fast, low cost and climate neutral blockchain where you can set up a fully featured NFT Marketplace and React App in 5 minutes! From the quickstart repositories, you can follow additional tutorials, adding bespoke business logic, decentralized storage and custom features to make your NFTs pop!

1st Place
• $6,000 USD in NEAR
• Fast track into NEAR Grant program.

2nd Place x 4
• $2,000 USD in NEAR

Oracles | Decentralized Data, External Computation, and Empowering your Smart Contracts Beyond the Chain - Hosted by Chainlink (3)

Chainlink is awarding the top 5 teams with $1,000 worth of LINK that use Chainlink in a meaningful way to empower their smart contracts. See requirements tab for what the judges are looking for.

Build for Scalability Using Polygon - Hosted by Polygon (3)

Polygon will be awarding the top three teams who deploy and scale their decentralized application on the Polygon Network. A working POC + Description is preferred.

1st Place - $3,000 worth of MATIC
2nd Place - $2,000 worth of MATIC
3rd Place - $1,000 worth of MATIC

Build a Consumer Digital Asset - Hosted by The XDB Foundation (3)

The XDB Foundation is awarding the top 3 teams who build a custom application that integrates consumer digital assets that could one day become a pillar of the DigitalBits network.

1st Place - Prototype Required
• $10,000 in XDB
• Preferred application for the DigitalBits grant program
• DigitalBits swag

2nd Place - Prototype required
• $7,500 in XDB
• Preferred application for the DigitalBits grant program
• DigitalBits swag

3rd Place - No prototype required
• $2,500 in XDB

Tokens and beyond on Tezos - Hosted by Tezos (2)

Tezos is awarding the top 2 teams to use create projects on the Tezos blockchain using one of the Tezos token contracts (FA1.2 and FA2). Where FA1.2 refers to a fungible token standard for Tezos, FA2 aspires to offer wide expressivity to create novel implementations beyond NFTs and even invent token types while maintaining a common interface standard for wallet integrators and external developers. Your token might represent a physical asset, digital asset, a governance mechanism, or a certain utility or service. Working prototypes are preferred but White Papers will also be considered.

1st Place
• $7,500 in tez (XTZ)
• Follow-up mentor session from Tezos developers

2nd Place
• $5,000 in tez (XTZ)
• Follow-up mentor session from Tezos developers

Social Impact - Hosted by Bybit (2)

Bybit is looking for the best projects to implement blockchain technology for social good. White Papers, Working Prototypes & MVPs will be considered.

1st Place
• $5,000 in USDT
• Virtual coffee with the head of financial product

2nd Place
• $2,500 in USDT
• A virtual coffee with the head of financial product

Blockchain Gaming - Hosted by Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands is awarding $3000 in crypto to the best team to implement blockchain technology into gaming. This could mean starting a completely new game from scratch, or improving current use cases for the global blockchain gaming ecosystem. A working prototype isn't required, but visuals in addition to a solid technical concept/white paper is encouraged.

Build an Treasury Supported Currency Application - Hosted by AXIA Network (3)

The AXIA Network is awarding the top 3 teams to build a custom application that leverages the AXIA currency. Utilise AXC into your application from the ground up.

1st Place - Prototype Required
• $7,500 AXC
• Expedited pitch session with AXIA Private Equity

2nd Place - Prototype required
• $5,000 AXC
• Expedited pitch session with AXIA Private Equity

3rd Place - No prototype required
• $2,500 AXC
• AXIA swag

Metaverse Build Competition - Hosted by Decentraland

Decentraland is looking for the top decentraland build or the best application to leverage Decentraland’s native currency MANA.

1st Place
• 1 parcel of land (approx value $7,000)
• Meeting with DCL core team

Best Netbox.Browser Extension - Hosted by Netbox Global

The Netbox.Browser is the first truly decentralized web browser that carries the blockchain node and pays rewards to the users just for running this node while surfing the web and doing what they got used to in Netbox.Browser. Netbox is looking to award the best idea to build an extension for Netbox.Browser that would contribute additional value to it and provide its users with some useful crypto related experience.

1st Place - Prototype Required
•$5,000 in NBX
•Distribution of the extension to all the Netbox.Browser users and including this extension to the setup bundle

Devpost Achievements

Submitting to this hackathon could earn you:

Judges

Michael Gord

Michael Gord
CEO / GDA Capital

Nick Plante

Nick Plante
Director & Partner / dlab

Erikan Obotetukudo

Erikan Obotetukudo
Founder & Partner / Audacity Fund

Bill Laboon

Bill Laboon
Head of Technical Education / Web3 Foundation

Simon Telian

Simon Telian
Managing Director / Advanced Blockchain AG

Gaurav Dubey

Gaurav Dubey
Angel Investor / TDeFi

Rebecca L. Batterman

Rebecca L. Batterman
Harvard Ventures

Joel Dietz

Joel Dietz
MIT Fellow / Founding Member, Ethereum Foundation

Tobias Bauer

Tobias Bauer
Principal / Blockchain Founders Fund

Simon Yu

Simon Yu
CEO & Co-founder / StormX

Aidan Hyman

Aidan Hyman
CEO & Co-founder / ChainSafe

Enzo Villani

Enzo Villani
Alpha Sigma Capital

Carlos Santiago Roldán

Carlos Santiago Roldán
Core Engineer / Terraform Labs

Christy Maclear

Christy Maclear
Artist Digital Ventures

Brian Mosoff

Brian Mosoff
CEO / Ether Capital

Jantine Derksen

Jantine Derksen
Director / Tz Connect GmbH

Erick Pinos

Erick Pinos
President / Blockchain Education Network

James Haft

James Haft
DLTx

John Newby

John Newby
Director / Tz Connect GmbH

Patrick Collins

Patrick Collins
Developer Advocate / Chainlink

Tzahi Kansa

Tzahi Kansa
CEO / FutureBlock

Tatiana Koffman

Tatiana Koffman
Angel Investor

0xwagmi

0xwagmi
Ecosystem Development / Terraform Labs

Muskan Kalra

Muskan Kalra
Lead Developer Relations / Polygon

Daniel Sloan

Daniel Sloan
Co-Founder & Chief Investment Officer / Future Tech

John Kenny

John Kenny
Head of Technology / DLTx

Matt Lockyer

Matt Lockyer
Developer Relations Director / NEAR Protocol

Ezaan Mangaliji

Ezaan Mangaliji
Smart Contract Developer / Terraform Labs

Pradeep Aswal

Pradeep Aswal
CEO / Blockchain Council

Chad Liang

Chad Liang
Head of Listing / BitMart

Sandipan Kundu

Sandipan Kundu
Developer Evangelist / Polygon

Howe Fai

Howe Fai
Core Developer / 0xVentures

Sam Hamilton

Sam Hamilton
Community Lead / Decentraland Foundation

Joaquim Miro

Joaquim Miro
SVP of Growth / GDA Capital

Bill Xing

Bill Xing
Head of Financial Product / Bybit

Gaurav Bansal

Gaurav Bansal
Investment Lead / Holt Accelerator

Judging Criteria

  • Originality & Creativity
    How novel and innovative is the idea? Does it set out to do something completely different or at least improve existing models?
  • Technicality & Design
    What is the tech like? Does it have comprehensive and efficient features? Is the code understandable and usable by others? Is it designed to scale?
  • Business Model & Feasibility
    What is the value proposition and how does it set out to differentiate itself? How will it capture value, new users and/or generate revenue? Is the project positioned to succeed?
  • Usability
    What is the user experience like? Is it clean and intuitive? How will you implement UX/UI?
  • Practicality & Use Case
    Is this something people would actually use and want? Will the idea have an impact on people, revolutionize some aspect of human life, or disrupt the status quo?
  • Contribution to the Global Blockchain Ecosystem
    How does your idea increase global blockchain adoption, value for its users, and innovation in the field of Open Source technology? Does it welcome new users and help existing users?

Questions? Email the hackathon manager

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